PUBG and Fortnite Drama Continues, and it could get ugly

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The brazen similarities between Fortnite‘s upcoming Battle Royale mode and the popular survival experience PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are not lost on Battlegrounds developer Bluehole Studio, who is now considering legal action against Fortnite developer Epic Games.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has taken the gaming community by storm over the past couple months, recently unseating the PC titan Dota 2 for highest recorded concurrent player count on Steam. Fortnite‘s recently announced Battle Royale mode is a fairly obvious attempt by Epic to cash in on the current popularity of the multiplayer survival genre, but Bluehole claims the similarities go too far- particularly considering Fortnite creative director Donald Mustard flat-out name drops PUBG in Battle Royale’s announcement trailer. In an official statement, Bluehole VP and executive producer Chang Han Kim expressed the studio’s concerns.

“We’ve had an ongoing relationship with Epic Games throughout PUBG‘s development as they are the creators of UE4, the engine we licensed for the game,” Kim stated. “After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.”


“We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press. This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right. The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action.”


There is no word yet on what to expect from Bluehole’s “further action.”

So the first thing that I'd like to clarify is that this is not about the battle royale game mode itself. There were other BR gamemodes earlier this year that were released, like last man standing or GTA 5's battle royale game mode, and we never raised an issue, and I think it's great that there's more competition and everyone should be able to create their own battle royale game mode, and it's not about the idea itself, it's about Epic Games, and that wasn't really clear [in the press release].

There are a lot of different issues but everyone else that released a battle royale game mode made their own thing, but it was Epic Games that made this game that is similar to us that has similar elements, and that's the concern, that it was Epic Games.

We use Unreal Engine to develop PUBG, and we pay a large amount of royalties based on the size of our success to Epic Games, and Epic Games always promoted their licensing models [saying] "We want to support the success indie developers", and [Bluehole is] this indie developer that has been the most successful one using the Unreal Engine this year, and that's the problem that I see.


there's another issue. We're going to get some technical support [from Epic], and we're going to work with them to make sure Unreal Engine better supports battle royale gameplay which requires 100 people in one session, and now we're starting to have concerns that they're going to develop new features or improve something in the engine to support that battle royale gameplay, and then use it for their own game mode.


Unless it gets hit with a cease and desist, Fortnite fans can look forward to the game’s Battle Royale mode launching September 26th, coming free to all players as a stand-alone experience. Unlike Battlegrounds, Battle Royale will be available across all major platforms, as a new trailer recently announced.



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Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/pubg-team-upset-about-fortnites-battle-royale-and-it-could-get-ugly/

Comments

"PUBG and Fortnite Drama Continues, and it could get ugly" :: Login/Create an Account :: 12 comments

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DecyPosted:

-Silky Massively un -needed and just straight up pointless


The games fun.. its just because they kept mentioning PUBG when advertising it.

SilkyPosted:

Massively un -needed and just straight up pointless

MusketPosted:

I say they meet up and fight each other. Not really but I dont see why there is all this drama, they should help each other out.

CraigPosted:

Don't see what all the fuss is about ngl. If they are worried they are going to do a better job. They need to up their game.

DecyPosted:

FourStar If they encourage competition why are they so worried about Fornite being similar, Battle Royale gamemode isn't even supposed to be the main selling point of Fortnite


Its not that there similar. i thought this yesterday also. Its down to the fact that yeah they have a similar gamemode but they keep mentioning PuBG and Bluehole don't like it as they haven't said anything to them about it.

FourStarPosted:

If they encourage competition why are they so worried about Fornite being similar, Battle Royale gamemode isn't even supposed to be the main selling point of Fortnite

SwiftPosted:

Hux
Swift Honestly this is the best thing that could have happened to Epic games. I never heard of Fortnite before this and I am tired of PUBG and its shit hit reg and other massive flaws. Bluehole has zero grounds for a lawsuit or "legal action".

Epic Games freaking owns Unreal Engine 4 which PUBG uses.

Also I have to add. If Bluehole really is scared. Maybe they should get new devs because they ones they are using are shit. PUBG is the worst game I've ever played running Unreal Engine 4.


How are the developers shit? Please explain.. the game is still in early access for christ's sake..


I guess I was just upset at Bluehole and taking my anger out on Brenden Greene. But he does need help with this game. I mean you can tell he could do so much more if he had help if games like Gears of War 4 can run on Unreal Engine 4 and be amazingly smooth.

Early Access means nothing anymore. Almost every game releases in Early access nowadays. Thats just a title so devs game release games that have zero optimization and charge full price.

Also if Bluehole keeps this up, see what happened to Silicon Knights that last time a company tried to sue Epic over a dumb reason.

Sorry if its rambly.

HuxPosted:

Swift Honestly this is the best thing that could have happened to Epic games. I never heard of Fortnite before this and I am tired of PUBG and its shit hit reg and other massive flaws. Bluehole has zero grounds for a lawsuit or "legal action".

Epic Games freaking owns Unreal Engine 4 which PUBG uses.

Also I have to add. If Bluehole really is scared. Maybe they should get new devs because they ones they are using are shit. PUBG is the worst game I've ever played running Unreal Engine 4.


How are the developers shit? Please explain.. the game is still in early access for christ's sake..

SwiftPosted:

Honestly this is the best thing that could have happened to Epic games. I never heard of Fortnite before this and I am tired of PUBG and its shit hit reg and other massive flaws. Bluehole has zero grounds for a lawsuit or "legal action".

Epic Games freaking owns Unreal Engine 4 which PUBG uses.

Also I have to add. If Bluehole really is scared. Maybe they should get new devs because they ones they are using are shit. PUBG is the worst game I've ever played running Unreal Engine 4.

DsTs_VelocityPosted:

Me Idk. This is kind of disappointing. I love PUBG, and I've never played fortnight, but I love seeing other games compete to try and be better. For PUBG to sue or take legal action saying they stole the idea etc is kind of disappointing. I feel they are two completely separate games and PUBG has no worries with this game as it looks completely different.

You obviously didn't read the article all the way through, They said they dont care about them using the idea itself, Its the fact that the game mode they created has to many similarities to PUBG gameplay wise not idea.
There are a lot of different issues but everyone else that released a battle royale game mode made their own thing, but it was Epic Games that made this game that is similar to us that has similar elements, and that's the concern, that it was Epic Games.